A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

This province comprehends three-fourths of the capitania of the same name, given in the year 1534 to Vasco Fernandez Coutinho, as a remuneration for the services he had rendered in Asia to the Portuguese crown. It extends one hundred and thirty miles from south to north, between the river Cabapuana and the river Doce, its northern limit; the width from east to west hitherto remains, in great part, undetermined, in consequence of a considerable portion of this territory yet remaining in the power of the aboriginal natives. It is bounded on the north by the province of Porto Seguro, on the west by that of Minas Geraes, on the south by that of Rio de Janeiro, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

Authentic documents, as to the precise epoch of its colonization, are not discovered; the foundation of the town of Espirito Santo, and from which the capitania derived its name, may however be regarded as its commencement. This town (now called Villa Velha, or Old Town,) was the capital until Victoria acquired the pre-eminence.

It is asserted, by the author of the Geographical Description of Portuguese America, that Coutinho only took sixty persons with him to form the first establishment in his capitania, in which number were included two degradados, or degraded fidalgos, Don Gorge de Menezes and Don Simao de Castello Branco. With this small number he engaged and put the Indians to flight; founded the primitive capital; constructed a fort; and established an engenho.

Animated with a desire of affording his colony the means of a rapid improvement, he returned to Portugal, to procure what appeared to him requisite for the accomplishment of this praiseworthy object, leaving in his stead Gorge de Menezes, who was killed in combat with the natives. Castello Branco succeeded him in the government, and the Goytacaze tribe, having formed a confederacy with the Tupininquins, they attacked the colony under his temporary jurisdiction with so much fury and effect as to destroy every edifice and to counteract all the efforts of the Portuguese to retain the footing they had made, so that the remains of the colony, finding that the Indians gave no quarter to any individual, were compelled to seek refuge upon the margins of the river Cricare.

Coutinho returned from Portugal soon after this event, with all the assistance he could collect, and finding his capitania deserted, he solicited succours from Mendo de Sa, the governor-general at Bahia, which were promptly despatched under the command of his excellency’s son, Fernando de Sa, who uniting his force to the fugitives, near the Cricare, an assault was made upon the Indians with considerable advantage, but a body of the enemy fell upon them in turn, and did not allow time for the whole to save themselves by flight to the ships; Fernando de Sa, the commander was amongst the number that perished.

Ultimately, sixty-eight Europeans, the remains of so many people who had in the course of thirty years repaired to this capitania to establish themselves, attacked the Indians with desperate bravery, and gained a complete victory. This fortunate circumstance, aided by the religious instruction with which the Jesuits enlightened and made friends of a considerable portion of those savages, who served to reinforce the small number of whites, enabled the donatory to restore the capitania to the state in which he had left it.

The padre, Affonso Braz, who founded the college of the town of Victoria, in 1551, was the first missionary who arrived in this province.

The Indians did not supply the want of Europeans, who were prevented from coming here by hearing of the calamities of their countrymen.

Reverses of fortune reduced Coutinho to a state which precluded all possibility of deriving any advantage from the capitania; and one of his descendants, being equally unfortunate, sold it, for forty thousand crusades, to Francisco Gil d’Araujo, who established himself in it, animated with various projects, but which he soon abandoned in despair. One of his heirs, after using every endeavour, relinquished it under similar circumstances, and sold it to the crown in the reign of John V. for the sum which it cost. This province cannot be said to have experienced any considerable amelioration since the period of its reversion to the crown, nor does the dominion of the Indians reach to a much less extensive tract of territory, which may be attributed to the present scanty population, and the want of energy on the part of the government; it may however be observed, that the reduction of the Indians is rendered more difficult by the numerous serras and extensive woods which cover this district, demonstrating at the same time the fertility of the soil and its susceptibility of numerous branches of agriculture. The river Doce, which bounds it on the north, would render it still more valuable from the communication which might be opened by water from the mining districts to the ocean; and there is little doubt but that part of this district, in the power of the Indians, through which it runs is auriferous; at least it is fair to draw such an inference from the pieces of gold which are in the possession of the Indians who come in contact with the Portuguese parties of soldiers stationed upon its banks. An ouvidor assured me that the captain-mors, who commanded advanced stations upon this river, had seen pieces of gold in the possession of the Indians which they did not appear to value, but willingly exchanged them, at favourable opportunities, for knives or other iron instruments.

The salubrity of the climate, the existing state of this province, and the advantages which it presents, loudly call upon the present king and government to adopt measures for clearing the margins of the river Doce of the tribes of Indians that infest it, and to render this river navigable from the ocean to the province of Minas Geraes. The only natural difficulties of the river which present any impediment to its free navigation are the Escadinha falls, met with in its course between the latter province and that of Porto Seguro; they are three in number, are highly interesting, and do not extend more than three miles, being nearly together, so that the construction of a railway, or any other and less excellent expedient which the government might be induced to adopt, for the space only of three miles, would connect a conveyance by water to the coast of the produce of the interior districts, which at present is sent on the backs of mules, two and three months being consumed on the journey, and the same period with the return cargoes.